Detachable card holder for purses



Aug. 19, 1952 E. c. HENDERSON DETACHABLE CARD HOLDER FOR PURSES FiledApril 29, 1950 Patented Aug. 19, 1952 DETACHABLE CARD HOLDER I r onPURSES Eldon C. Henderson, Paso Robles, Calif. Application April 29,1950, Serial No. 159,120

3 Claims.

V This invention relates to detachable card holders for purses which arealso useful for preventing loss of purses from pockets of articles ofclothing, such as trouser pockets, and is particularly concerned with asimple, practical and inexpensive device which may be removably engagedto a purse. As used in the present specification and claims, the termpurse includes billfolds, pocketbooks, wallets and the like.

Various mechanical safety attachments for billfolds, pocketbooks and thelike have been proposed heretofore but have forvarious reasons notgained wide acceptances because they in most instances include metalframes or pivoted, rigid arms aflixed to the billfold for engaging thepocket after insertion into it, which are diflicult to operate or are sobulky as to deform the clothing and/or wear out parts of the pocket incon tact therewith.

There is need for a card holder for billfolds which can be readilydetached from the billfold to permit the owner to display or deliver anidentification card, credit card, or the like, without surrendering hiscomplete billfold. Applicant found that such a card holder should have aoooperative function with respect to the billfold so i as to behabitually placedtogether with the billfold, and yet be readilyextractable fromand .assembled to the billfold. Various detachableholders heretofore proposed have been secured to the billfold by a snapfastener which, in practice, requires care and time when the holderisfagain secured to the billfold; on the other hand, holders which areinserted loosely into a pocket or compartment in the billfold have thedrawback that the holder must be identified and segregated from othercards usually placed in such pocket or compartment. Simply placing sucha holder loosely in the billfold often results in accidental loss ormisplacement of the card holder.

It is, therefore, anobject of this invention to provide an improved cardholder which'is completely separate from and is readily detachable fromor inserted into a purse and is adapted to hold one or more cards, theholder being of simple construction and causing no personal discomfortto the person on whose person it is used when within the pocket of anarticle of clothing.

It is a further object to provide an improved card holder having a mainpurse-engaging portion adapted to retain one or more cards and a hingedguard tab which may be folded over the purse to permit insertion into orextraction from the pocket and which, when unfolded to lie inprolongation of the main purse-engaging portion is adapted to engage thecloth forming the pocket to prevent accidental movement or'unauthorizedextraction of the purse 'through the mouth of the pocket, the tabserving also as a handy means for withdrawing the device from the purse.1

Other objects areto provide a cardholder performing the added functionof securing a purse against loss from a pocket, which holder adds butlittle bulk to the purse; wherein the added guard tab may be utilizedfor iridicia, such as identification and/or advertising; and which canbe manufactured at a very low'cost and is suitable for free distributionas advertising.

Briefly, according to the present'invention the card holder is providedwith a main,'purse-en gaging and card-holding tab adapted to be insertedinto the purse from the side, and a guard tab secured to the main tab bya hinge along a hinge line which is perpendicular to the pocket openingwhen the purse is'in' its normal position within the pocket. The maintabhas a width (measured in a direction parallel to the pocket opening)which does notsubstantially exceed the width of a normal purse and is,preferably, equal to or somewhat shorter'than said width of the purse,and the width of the guard tab is such that the combined widths'of themain and the guarded tabs, exceeds the said width of the purse and,preferably, exceeds the width of the pocket opening. Both the main and,the guard tab are made of thin, stiff-sheet material which may have someflexibility, and the main part is formed of two or more laminationspreferably transparent, open at one or more margins to permit a card tobe inserted between the laminations. These laminations or at least oneof them may be made of any transparent sheet material such astransparent plastic material and the guard tab may be made of the samematerial or of a more rigid sheet material which is better able toresist wear due to'contact with the pocket.

The hinge. is preferably constructed of one or more sheets of fabric orother very flexible. material such as oilcloth, flexible plastic sheetmaterial, imitation leather (Leatherette), etc., arranged to maintainthe juxtaposed edges of the main part and guard tab in spaced relationso that the guard tab can be'folded over the outside of the purse andmade to lie in a plane offset by abollt half of the thickness of thepurse from the plane of the main partof the device. The width of thisinterval between the two tabs may be selected as desired, taking intoaccount the size of purse, and ithas been found that intervals ofbetween about one sixteenth and one quarter of an inch are suitable formost purposes. I This interval is, of course, an optional feature, andmay be omitted when a sufficiently flexible guard tab is used.

The hinge is preferably constructed of two sheets of fabric or othervery flexible material so as to have a tendency to cause the guard tabto unfold into the plane of the main tab. This facilitates movement ofthe guard tab into operative position after insertion of the assembledpurse and loss preventing device into the pocket without need to graspthe guard tab at its edge when folded alongside of the purse and thenfold it outwards with the end of the finger. With this preferredconstruction the guard tab, when released, tends to unfold, but isusually prevented from moving to its fully operative position byengagement thereof with the pocket lining; it is merely necessary todistend the lining momentarily, to free the guard tab for completing itsmovement to operative position.

The width of the guard tab is, in the preferred form, somewhat lessthanthe width of the main tab, thereby facilitating the movement of theguard tab about its hinge while within thepocket.

The invention will be better understood by reference to the acco np'anying drawing forming a part of thisspecification and showing apreferred embodiment of the invention by way of illustration. in thedrawing:

Fig. 1 is an elevation view of a card holder in unfolded or operativeposition;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an elevation; view, on a reduced scale, of a purse to whichthe card holder has been applied and which is secured within apocket,.the

pocket lining being shown insection;

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section view taken on I line 4-4 of Fig. 3; and IFig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view correspondingto Fig. 4 but showingthe guard tab in its inoperative position, folded back against theoutsideof the purse for permitting passage .through the pocket opening.

Referring to the drawings, the card holder comprises a mainpurse-engaging and card-holding tab If! and a guard tab ll connectedthereto by a hinge l2. material and all thicknesses have been greatlyexaggerated in Figs. 2, 4 and 5. The main tab in consists of a singlepiece of transparent plastic material folded at the outer edge l3 toprovide a pair of transparent covers and leaving theupper and loweredges 14 and l5 free for the insertion of identification or other cards,such as the card i6. Both covers terminate at the inner edge I! of themain tab; this edge is spaced slightly from the inner edge I8 of theguard tab. The hinge I 2 connecting these tabs ismade of two strips offabric tape or the like, shown at 19 and 2t,

secured to opposite sides of the tabs as shown in Fig. 2 by any suitablemeans, for example by an adhesive and/or stitching. The two transparentcovers. are held together at the edge I! by either of two means, both ofwhich may be used in combination: (a) The juxtaposed parts of the tapesl9 and 20 in the interval between the edges I l and IBare joined by,adhesive or stitching. (b) The tapes are stitched together by stitchingthrough the transparent sheets as shown at 2| in Fig.1. *It'was found inactual use that adhesive alonepermits the tapeto slide or creepgradually over the smooth surfaces The materials are of thin sheet ofthe sheet material used for transparent covers and the guard tab whenthe device is put to extended use and that stitching is desirable toprevent such relative motion; for this purpose the tapes are alsostitched to the guard tab as shown at 22. While stitching may constitutethe sole means of securing the tapes to the tabs it is preferred to useadhesive in addition to prevent the loose edges of the tape frombecoming frayed with use. The two parallel sheets of tape have atendency tourge the guard tab to its unfolded, operative positionregardless of the direction toward which it is folded.

The width of the card holder, from the outer edge I3 to the outer edge23 is slightly greater than-the width of the mouth or opening of thepocket of the clothing within which the purse is to be secured, e. g., ahip trouser pocket. The width of the purse-engaging main tab I0 isapproximately equal to or slightly less than the width of the purse,while the width of the guard tab H is somewhat less than that of themain tab. Moreover, it is preferred to cut away the outer margin of theguard tab as shown at 24 to decrease the width toward the bottom and,further, to cut oif the lower, outer corner 25, making the lower edgeshorter than the upper edge to fit into the pocket without binding.

When in place to secure a purse in the rear hip pocket the device isusually positioned with the guard tab toward the center of the body andthe hinge is vertical, as. shown in Fig. 3,, with the wider edge of thedevice toward the top. The upper edge thereby can engage the inner sideof the pocket lining for preventing accidental or unauthorizedextraction of v the purse with which the device is enga ed. v

In using the device the main, card-holding and purse-engaging tab In isinserted into a purse of any suitable type having a side opening, e. g.,by inserting that part into any compartment which opens to one side, orinto loops especially provided forthe purpose, etc. In the exampleillustrated in Figs. 3-5, the purse is shown "as abillfold 26 of thetype that is folded along a transverse axis.

. The card holding device is attached by placing the main tab betweenthe opposed sections with the shorter edge toward the folded edge 21 ofthe purse. To insert the billfold into the rear left hip trouser pocketshown, the guard tab is folded over the outer face of the billfold, asillustrated in Fig. 5, such folding being possible because of theinterval between the edges I! and [8. The assembled purse and cardholding device are then grasped in folded position and lowered throughthe opening 28 of the pocket with the hinge I2 vertical and the foldededge 21 down. The guard tabis then released and the lining 23 I of thepocket is moved away from the purse for a small distance, permitting theguard tab to rotate outwardly to assume its operative position shown inFig. 3. With some hinge materials it is necessary to rotate the hingeinto operative position by using the fingers. The billfold usuallyassumes a position at the center of the pocket with the edge I3projecting to the left of the purse, although this will not always occurwith purses which are not open at both side edges. In the billfoldshown, wherein the side edges 3!! and 3| of the billfold are both open,the outer edges 13 and 23-24 of the tabs are free to engage the lining29; but since the total width of the device is slightly less than thewidth of the usual hip trouser pocket these edges do not exert adistending force against the lining. It is evident that the card holdingdevice will not pass through the pocket opening in the positionillustrated in Fig. 3, and that engagement of the inner side of thefolded edge 21 of the billfold with the device prevents the billfoldfrom being removed.

To remove the purse from thepocket the tab 1 l is folded over the outerface of the purse and the purse and card holding device are raisedsimultaneously. To display the card is contained in the holder it is asimple matter to pull on the tab II and separate the device from thebillfold. This is a great convenience in many situations, for example,at automotive service stations where it is customary to hand a creditcard to an attendant and it is desired not to hand him the entirebillfold. Since the device is normally used to lock the purse in thepocket and thus functionally associated therewith it is unlikely thatthe device and purse will be thoughtlessly separated, so that the formerobjection to an independent card holder is obviated.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending applicationSerial No. 59,549, filed November 12, 1948, now Patent No. 2,580,296.

I claim as my invention:

1. A detachable card holder adapted to be attached to a purse and toextend beyond the margin of the purse when the purse and holder arewithin a pocket of an article of clothing comprising a mainpurse-engaging tab comprising a single piece of transparent sheetmaterial folded on itself to form a pair of transparent covers providingtherebetween a card-holding space open at a margin thereof to permit acard to be inserted; a guard tab comprising a sheet of thin, relativelystiffer material; and a hinge of very thin, highly flexible materialsecured to the faces of said tabs and joining said guard tab to the maintab, the aggregate width of card holder in a direction perpendicular tothe hinge between the remote edges being only slightly greater than thewidth of the opening of said pocket to permit the tabs to be unfoldedwithin the pocket with the hinge substantially perpendicular to saidopenings and both tabs having widths less than the width of saidopening, whereby the purseengaging tab may be engaged with a purse and 6the guard tab may be folded on said hinge to permit passage of the purseand card holder through said opening.v

2. A detachable card holder adaptedto be removably attached to a purseand to extend beyond the margin of the purse when the purse and cardholder are within a pocket of an article of clothing comprising a mainpurse-engaging tab and a guard tab connected by a hinge, both of saidtabs being made of thin, stiff sheet material, said purse-engaging tabcomprising a plurality of laminations at least one outer one of which istransparent and providing therebetween a card-holding space open at amargin thereof to permit a card to be inserted, and the guard tab beingof sheet material heavier and stiffer than said transparent material toresist wear, the aggregate width of the device in a directionperpendicular to the hinge between the remote edges being slightlygreater than the width of a purse and the width of each of said tabs inthe said direction being not substantially in excess of said width ofthe purse.

3. The card-holder according to claim 2 wherein the purse-engaging tabhas a width, measured in the said direction, substantially equal to thewidth of the purse and the guard tab has a width that is materially lessthan the width of the purse.

ELDON C. HENDERSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 405,874 Collins June 25, 18891,582,492 Tantlinger Apr. 27, 1926 2,176,387 Blakey Oct. 17, 19392,258,316 Buxton Oct. 7, 1941 2,419,092 Schapback et a1. Apr. 15, 19472,430,042 Bishing Nov. 4, 1947 2,480,484 Krause Aug. 30, 1949 2,493,409Knee Jan. 3, 1950 2,580,296 Henderson Dec. 25, 1951

